which caused confusion in his narrations. The implication of this is that whatever is transmitted from him by discerning experts such as Yaḥyā ibn Maʿīn, al-Bukhārī, Abū Zurʿah, and Abū Ḥātim belongs to the sound portion of his hadith; whereas reports transmitted from him by other shaykhs should be held in abeyance. And Allah knows best.

Abū Shurayḥ was ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Shurayḥ al-Iskandarānī, a trustworthy narrator whose reports are relied upon in the two Ṣaḥīḥ collections. Yet Saʿīd ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Abī al-ʿAmyāʾ contradicted him in both chain and text, saying: from Sahl ibn Abī Umāmah, who told him from Anas ibn Mālik that the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, used to say … He then cited a similar version of the hadith, adding:

“And monasticism, which they invented—we did not prescribe it for them. Then, the following morning, they said: ‘Let us ride out, look, and take heed …’”

He then cited the hadith in full. I have included it in the other book (3468) because of this addition. Saʿīd alone reported it, and none declared him trustworthy except Ibn Ḥibbān.

Al-Haythamī cited the hadith in al-Majmaʿ and said (1/62):

“Al-Ṭabarānī narrated it in al-Awsaṭ and al-Kabīr. Its chain includes ʿAbd Allāh ibn Ṣāliḥ, the scribe of al-Layth; a group of scholars declared him trustworthy, while others deemed him weak.”

I say: It has two corroborating mursal reports. One is from Abū Qilābah, attributed directly to the Prophet, with the wording:

“Those before you were only destroyed by excessive strictness. They imposed strictness upon themselves, so Allah imposed strictness upon them; and those are their remnants in the dwellings and monastic cells.”

Ibn Jarīr narrated it in al-Tafsīr (7/7), al-Marwazī in Zawāʾid al-Zuhd (365/1031), and others, through two routes from Ayyūb, from him.